


Groundhog Day

by rabidchild67



Series: Five Times... [11]
Category: White Collar
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Schmoop, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-18
Updated: 2013-01-18
Packaged: 2017-11-26 00:13:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/644452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rabidchild67/pseuds/rabidchild67
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal has the flu.</p>
<p>Originally written on Groundhog Day in 2011.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Groundhog Day

Neal snuggled down further into the covers and shivered; a cough escaped his lips and he sniffed. Elizabeth stepped into the room from the bathroom and made sympathetic noises. “Aww, you awake?”

He didn’t emerge from under the covers, but she could see a portion of them moving and surmised it was his head nodding. He had somehow wound up lying almost sideways in their bed. She sat on the edge and lay a hand on his shoulder and rubbed. The flu that had decimated all thhir friends and co-workers had finally found Neal, and he had had a rough night; chills, fever and coughs keeping them up until nearly 4:00. El had suggested Peter move to the guest room so he could get some sleep at around midnight and had stayed behind to tend to the patient. It was now 8:00 on this bright, early February morning, and she had hoped he could have slept more.

“You sleep OK?” The covers nodded. “Can I get you anything?” The covers moved in a different direction and she concluded he’d shaken his head. “Can’t you talk?” she said with a smile.

“No,” he said, his voice more breath than whisper. Add laryngitis to the list of symptoms, she thought.

“I’ll bring you some tea with honey and lemon. OK?” The covers nodded.

She grabbed the hand-crocheted afghan from her grandmother that lay at the foot of the bed and draped it over him before heading downstairs.

Neal spent the remainder of the morning hidden under the covers, Elizabeth not seeing even a suggestion of dark hair or flushed skin when she peeked in on him. He’d barely moved, as far as she could tell, and hadn’t touched the tea she’d brought, but she brought him more plus some toast at around noon anyway.

She laid the tray down on the bedside table, and when he shifted in the bed she knew he was awake. She sat on the edge of the bed again and put her hand on what she thought was his shoulder. “How ya doing?” she asked.

There was movement at his other end and she realized she was caressing his knee. He’d somehow managed to be lying with his head at the foot of the bed without disturbing the mound of covers over him. Elizabeth smiled. “You’re good and burrowed in there, huh?”

The mound moved again and she took it for a nod. “Come on out, baby. I brought you some toast and tea.”

He tried several times to speak, and finally croaked out, “Don’t want to.”

“Why?”

“Just don’t want to.”

She nodded, thinking. “Is it too cold in here?”

“No.”

“Too bright? You afraid of seeing your shadow, Punxsutawney Phil?”

“No.”

“Well I’m not leaving until I get an answer.”

He squirmed under the covers and she raised her hand as she realized he was moving back towards the head of the bed. He pulled the covers back from his face, long elegant fingers pawing and clutching at them, and finally regarded her with a single blue eye. “I don’t want you to see me this way.”

“What way?” she asked, truly puzzled. “I’ve seen you every which way, Neal.”

“Sick. It’s not pretty.”

“Oh.” He didn’t want her to see him so vulnerable, needy, she guessed. “Well, um, you have no choice really, honey, cuz I’m a motherer and I practically get off on it. Come on, get up.” She patted him on the leg.

He sighed and pushed himself up in the bed, finally emerging from the covers and sinking back on the pillows in a semi-seated position. His face was flushed and creased from the sheets, T-shirt stretched at the neck and slightly dampened with sweat, and his hair….well, his hair stood up in all directions and it made her laugh.

“See?” he said, abashed.

“Oh, no, Neal. You are like the sexiest troll doll I’ve ever seen!” And she kissed him and made him drink his tea. 

\----

Thank you for your time.


End file.
